973.71j63 
B3HUliap 


Hertz,   Emanuel • 

Abraham  Lincoln,  His 
Political  Vision 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Abraham    ffitnraln 

Bta  f  oltttral  Itsian 

By 

EMANUEL     HERTZ 


IE 


AN  ADDRESS  REPRINTED  FROM 
THE  REPUBLICAN 

FEBRUARY  6,  1926. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


V 


1 


http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnhispOOhert 


J 

Abraham    Htnroln 

Hta  ilolttfral  Htsinn 

By  EMANUEL  HERTZ 


A  careful  study  of  Lincoln's  political 
activities  from  the  day  he  emerged  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Assembly  in  Illinois  to 
the  very  end  of  his  life  discloses  that  he 
regarded  politics  an  honorable  vocation. 
Neither  his  ceaseless  struggle  for  financial 
independence  nor  the  preparation  of  hii 
cases  ever  interfered  with  his  thinking  ot 
the  political  problems  of  the  hour,  and 
in  between  the  trials  of  his  cases,  on  the 
circuit,  in  the  courtroom,  in  the  court 
yard,  in  the  country  store,  in  the  village 
inns,  or  in  any  place  where  citizens  of  any 
community  who  knew  him  assembled,  all 
such  places  immediately  became  the  forum 
for  the  discussion  of  the  political  prob 
Jems  of  the  day  with  Lincoln  as  the 
speaker  and  source  of  all  information. 
Was  a  convention  called  at  which  Re 
publican  principles  were  to  be  transmuted 
into  a  Republican  platform,  Lincoln  was 
there  and  delivered  his  Burlington  speech 
which  became  a  clarion  call  to  the  en' 
tire  Republican  party  then  spring' 
ing  into  being  throughout  the  land, 
and  to  all  such  as  were  unable  to 
make  up  their  minds  whether  to  go  from 
the  disappearing  Whig  Party.  It  re' 
quired  a  trained  politician,  indeed,  to 
keep  these  droves  of  voters  from  the  ban' 
ners  of  Douglas  with  his  alluring  prom' 
ises  of  union  and  of  peace,  if  they  but 
followed  him. 

To  those  who  have  studied  the  psr' 
formances  of  the  "little  giant,""  as  he  was 
known  throughout  the  land,  how  in  an 
incredibly  short  time  he  forged  to  the 
front  in  the  United  States  Senate  where 
such  men  as  Jefferson  Davis,  William 
H.  Seward,  Charles  Sumner  and  Salmon 
P.  Chase  and  other  great  leaders  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  controlling  the  des' 
tinies  of  the  country;  how  he  dominated 
the  politics  of  Illinois  and  of  the  Middle 
West  and  how  he  almost  persuaded  the 


new  Republican  Party,  at  the  urging  of 
Greeley,  to  nominate  him  as  its  standard 
bearer,  it  can  be  seen  what  a  supreme 
tactician  Lincoln  must  have  been  when 
he  not  only  counteracted  the  sinister  ten' 
dencies  of  Douglas  but  organized  a  party 
which,  when  the  test  came  at  the  mem 
orable  Convention  in  Chicago,  demon' 
strated  that  no  such  exhibition  of  political 
preparation,  of  political  acumen,  of  pc 
litical  generalship,  was  ever  witnessed  i~i 
any  similar  political  gathering  before  or 
since. 

Lincoln  ennobled  the  word  "politics." 
He  saw  in  politics  one  of  the  essentials 
of  a  nation's  life.  He  saw  that  the  na' 
tion  was  governed  by  parties  and  could 
be  ruled  by  parties  only,  if  political  chaos 
was  to  be  averted,  and  he  took  possession 
of  the  new  Republican  party  in  every  cor' 
ner  of  the  land  in  such  fashion  as  amazed 
old  leaders  like  Thurlow  Weed,  Bates, 
David  Davis,  Blair  and  Cameron.  They 
were  all  like  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  pot' 
ter.  And  there  was  Lincoln  in  his  home 
in  Springfield,  with  his  plans  in  trusted 
hands,  primed  and  prepared  for  every 
emergency  and  all  but  nominated  on  th? 
first  ballot.  Lincoln  never  apologized  for 
being  a  politician  and  a  political  leader. 
He  considered  it  part  of  his  duty  to  the 
State  and  to  the  Nation. 

It  is  amazing  to  see  how  he  called  to 
his  help  men  of  eminence,  if  need  be,  and 
how  he  found  among  the  plain  people  of 
his  time,  the  very  best  helpers  in  his  one  ' 
supreme  task — the  saving  of  the  Union. 
In  one  of  the  unpublished  letters  which 
he  wrote  to  Simon  Cameron  immediately 
after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  he  told 
Cameron  that  at  the  conference  as  to 
whether  Lee  was  to  be  pursued  after 
Gettysburg,  Mead  and  his  staff  were  prac 
tically  unanimous  not  to  pursue  the  lion 
of  the  South.     One  commander,  however, 


Three 


?m  \ 


urged  pursuit  and  destruction  of  Lee  im- 
mediately after  Gettysburg.  Lincoln  wanted 
to  know  the  name  of  that  commander  be- 
cause he  was  heart  and  soul  in  sympathy 
with  such  a  policy. 

Another  one  of  his  unpublished  letters 
discloses  a  thoroughly  worked  out  plan 
of  attacking  the  Confederacy  by  way  of 
Mexico — something  that  his  generals  had 
never  dreamed  of.  But  far  and  above  all 
his  keen  foresight  and  his  remarkable 
understanding  of  the  manner  and  of  ths 
method  of  taking  hold  of  the  govern- 
ment at  a  time  when  failure  to  appreci- 
ate  the  dangers  involved  would  have 
wrecked  the  Union  beyond  any  hope  of 
its  ever  being  saved  or  united  again.  The 
Buchanan  administration  was  dying  oi 
inertia,  of  cowardice  and  of  downright 
treason.  The  army  was  being  sent  to  dis' 
tant  posts;  the  navy  scattered  to  the  fout 
winds  of  heaven,  and  the  one  colossal 
Southern  blunder  which  has  never  been 
explained  and  which  Lincoln  could  not 
understand  was  why  Beaureguard  did  not 
march  upon  Washington  and  take  pos' 
session  of  the  capital.  Lincoln  said:  "If 
I  were  Beaureguard  I  would  march  upon 
Washington  and  take  possession  of  it." 

In  order  to  counterbalance  the  mind  of 
the  Eastern  voters  bent  on  peace  at  any 
price,  and  of  the  Southern  voters  bent 
upon  secession,  Lincoln's  mind  travelled 
to  the  Middle  West  and  to  the  North' 
west,  populated  by  the  great  wave  of 
German  immigrants  who  had  left  Ger- 
many  after  the  Revolution  of  1848,  and 
whose  vote  became  the  decisive  factor  in 
the  elections  of  at  least  six  states.  Lin- 
coin  saw  that  without  that  vote  he  could 
not  hope  to  win,  even  if  nominated,"  and 
it  was  that  vote  that  Lincoln,  the  pol'*' 
tician,  set  out  to  convince  and  control 
when  the  crucial  moment  should  arrive. 

Another  unpublished  document  of  Lin' 
coin's  shows  us  clearly  that  Lincoln  him' 
self  financed  the  establishment  of  a  Ger- 
man paper  in  Springfield.  Aside  perhaps 
from  Dr.  Lieber,  Dr.  Theodore  Canisius 
of  Springfield  was  one  of  the  ablest  Jour' 
nalists  and  publicists  of  his  day,  and  just 
as  Lincoln  picked  Seward  and  Chase  and 
Wells  and  Fessenden  and  Grant  and  Sheri' 


dan,  when  the  time  came  to  pick,  he 
chose  Dr.  Canisius  to  edit  the  paper  which 
was  to  educate  and  influence  the  entire 
German'American  vote  of  that  genera- 
tion.  Lincoln  paid  for  the  type,  the  print' 
ing  presses  and  the  paper,  and  arranged 
with  Dr.  Canisius  to  publish  weekly,  if 
not  daily,  a  newspaper  in  which  the  Re' 
publican  platforms  of  1858  and  1860  wer? 
to  be  supported — to  be  published  in  the 
German  language.  And  as  long  as  the 
paper  supported  the  Republican  platforms 
the  plant  and  the  profits  were  to  belong 
to  Dr.  Canisius;  but  should  the  paper  de' 
part  from  that  policy  he,  Abraham  Lin' 
coin,  was  empowered  by  an  instrument  in 
writing  and  under  seal,  prepared  by  Lin- 
coln, the  lawyer,  to  take  possession  of  the 
plant  and  eject  an  editor  even  of  the 
standing  of  Dr.  Canisius,  should  he  fail 
or  falter  in  his  support  of  the  Republican 
platform. 

In  other  words,  Lincoln  did  not  hesi' 
tate  to  use  every  legitimate  means  of  ac 
complishing  and  bringing  about  his  pur' 
pose — the  saving  of  the  Union.  He  aJ/ 
lowed  a  perfect  storm  of  criticism  about 
his  methods  to  blow  over  his  head  from 
the  Northern  Copperhead  press  and  from 
the  Southern  prcslavery  press,  while  he 
serenely  pursued  his  purposes  and  his  poli' 
cies  undisturbed  by  any  such,  to  him,  un' 
important  criticism.  And  yet  he  regarded 
the  dissatisfaction  and  criticism  of  a  man 
like  Henry  Ward  Beecher;  for  upon  the 
word  of  Dr.  Hillis  we  have  it  that  he  called 
on  Beecher  and  walked  the  floor  of  the  h' 
brary  all  night  until  he  convinced  Beecher 
that  he,  Lincoln,  was  right  and  tha: 
Beecher  was  mistaken,  and  after  that  visit 
Beecher  performed  such  wonderful  service 
by  keeping  England  out  of  the  fray  that 
Lincoln  finally  said,  when  he  requested 
Beecher  to  raise  the  flag  over  a  recap' 
tured  Fort  Sumpter  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  great  war,  that  but  for  Beecher  there 
would  have  been  no  flag  to  raise. 

Nor  did  Lincoln  ever  fear  or  care  for 
any  criticism  in  filling  political  positions. 
He  consulted  the  leaders  of  his  party  in 
the  different  states  as  to  appointments  that 
were  to  be  made  and  he  believed,  and 
believed  to  the  full  extent,  in  the  prin* 


Four 


ciplc  that  those  who  were  able  and  willing 
and  requested  by  the  party  to  preach  the 
party  principles,  were  deserving  of  being 
called  into  power  to  help  carry  out  those 
party  principles.  He  did  not  believe  in 
having  one  class  of  men  do  the  work  of 
organizing  the  party  in  the  different  parts 
of  the  country,  of  conducting  the  cam- 
paigns and  winning  the  elections  and  then 
dismissing  that  entire  army  of  party  work' 
ers  in  order  to  put  in  office  a  few  favor' 
ites  of  fortune  or  a  few  social  climbers 
who  came  well  recommended  for  such  po' 
sitions  after  the  others  had  done  the 
fighting  and  achieving  the  victory  at 
the  polls.  While  he  did  not  carry  the 
principle  quite  as  far  as  did  that  other 
intrepid  spirit,  Andrew  Jackson,  who  was 
firm  in  the  belief  that  if  there  were  a  po* 
sition  in  the  Federal  service  which  could 
not  be  filled  by  a  member  of  his  own  party 
that  position,  in  his  opinion,  had  better 
be  abolished,  he  did  follow  the  Jacksonian 
principle  of  rewarding  the  able  party  work' 
ers  of  his  day;  and  hence  we  find  his 
neighbor  and  his  friend,  David  Davis,  on 
the  Supreme  Court  bench  by  his  appoint 
ment,  Speed  in  the  Cabinet,  Holt  in  the 
Judge  Advocate's  office,  as  well  as  every 
other  leader  who  had  anything  to  do  witu 
bringing  about  Lincoln's  nomination  and 
Lincoln's  election  either  the  first  or  the 
second  time,  rewarded  in  one  form  or  an' 
other  by  being  called  into  the  service  oi 
the  government. 

A  great  deal  of  criticism  was  current  at 
the  time  that  Lincoln  spent  so  much  time 
with  filling  offices;  we  forget  that  with 
Buchanan's  exit  the  Democratic  Party 
practically  became  defunct,  and  with  its 
Southern  leaning  and  Copperhead  tenden' 
cies,  it  was  not  to  be  entrusted  with  the 
continued  conduct  of  the  government,  and 
Lincoln  could  not  and  should  not  have 
permitted  any  of  them  to  remain  in  office 
in  order  to  conspire  with  their  Southern 
friends  and  succeed  in  making  Lincoln's 
task  insuperable,  if  not  impossible  of  ac 
complishment.  If  ever  a  President  was 
called  upon  to  make  a  clean  sweep  and 
to  make  an  entirely  new  series  of  ap- 
pointments in  every  position  within  his 
gift,  it  was  Lincoln  who  was  compelled  so 


to  do,  and  he  filled  almost  every  position 
with  a  ,member  of  the  new  Republican 
Party  which  had  worked  for  him  and 
won  the  great  victory  of  1860. 

Of  course,  the  patriotic  section  of  tht 
Democratic  Party  which  had  moved  into 
the  new  Republican  Party  headed  by  men 
like  Chase,  Wells  and  Blair,  were  appoint' 
ed  for  the  purpose  of  cementing  the  fusion 
and  union  between  what  was  left  of  the 
Democratic  Party  and  the  new  Republi- 
can Party. 

Lincoln  cared  nothing  for  the  cavil  and 
for  the  hypocrisy  of  those  who  found  fault 
with  him  for  spending  his  time  about  fill' 
ing  of  offices  while  the  fate  of  the  Repub' 
lie  was  hanging  in  the  balance.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem,  and  in  spite  of  this  thorough 
housccleaning  inaugurated  and  accom 
plished  by  Lincoln,  he  had  more  than  suf- 
ficient time  to  build  up  an  army  and  navy 
and  to  formulate  a  plan  of  campaig  i 
which  ultimately  paralyzed  and  destroyed 
the  Confederacy,  while  in  glaring  contract 
the  Confederacy  was  manned  by  the  aris' 
tocracy  of  the  land,  the  motley  group  of 
statesmen,  soldiers,  sailors,  teachers,  legis- 
lators and  volunteers  who  followed  their 
uncouth  and  humble  spokesman  made  a 
much  better  showing  from  every  coiv 
ceivable  standpoint  than  did  the  compact 
organization  of  their  opponents.  Losses 
there  were,  defeats  there  were,  heartaches 
and  despair  hovered  above  the  banners  of 
the  Union  for  well  nigh  three  years,  but 
Lincoln's  grip  of  steel  upon  his  own  party 
and  upon  the  entire  North  was  the  only 
thing  that  saved  us  from  the  dismal  pros 
pect  of  disunion,  dismemberment  and  de- 
struction. 

One  by  one  this  inspired  politician  from 
the  Middle  West  picked  up  the  severed 
threads  of  the  Union,  repaired  something 
here,  healed  something  there,  supplied  the 
missing  organizer,  restorei,  reconstructor 
and  upbuilder  in  every  part  of  the  Union, 
wrote  thousands  of  letters  to  friends  and 
foes  of  the  Union  in  every  part  of  the 
country,  and  how  those  letters  killed  ana 
chilled  conspiracy  and  treason  and  how 
they  thrilled  and  encouraged  and  helped 
the  friends  of  the  Union!  And  in  this 
manner  this  politician  who  organized  his 


Five 


campaigns  for  the  Assembly,  his  successful 
campaign  for  a  Congressional  nomination, 
this  politician  who  debated  up  and  down 
Illinois  with  the  leader  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  practiced  his  political  prin- 
ciples in  the  same  manner,  without  any 
change  until  he  surrounded  himself  and 
until  he  mobilized  the  most  remarkable 
aggregation  of  statesmen,  of  soldiers,  of 
financiers,  and  of  journalists  to  his  task — 
of  saving  and  reconstructing  the  Union,  a 
feat  which  has  not  been  approximated  by 
any  other  of  our  twentyeight  Presidents. 

Every  now  and  then  one  of  our  Lincoln 
Day  orators,  one  of  our  statesmen  in  re' 
sponsible  positions,  asks:  "What  would 
Lincoln  do  if  he  were  here  today?"  An 
answer  to  that  question  has  been  attempted 
a  great  many  times,  but  very  few  an' 
swers  have  been  given  in  the  light  of 
Lincoln's  performances.  The  sad  and  dis- 
tressing phase  about  the  whole  thing 
seems  to  be  that  all  those  who  ask  the 
question  studiously  refrain  from  reading 
Lincoln's  speeches  and  letters — those  in- 
tensely human  documents.  They  refrain 
from  studying  his  political  acts  and  per- 
formances. If  they  but  knew  his  letters, 
his  addresses,  if  they  but  studied  his  per 
formances,  the  answer  would  be  evident. 
Lincoln  certainly  would  not  divide  his 
followers  into  patricians  and  plsbians. 
Lincoln  certainly  would  not  divide  the 
voters  of  this  country  or  the  political  or 
ganizations  of  this  country  into  a  fighting 
organization  and  into  an  office-holding  or- 
ganization. The  man  who  would  fight  the 
battles  of  the  Republic;  the  man  who 
would  preach  Lincoln's  doctrine  would  n.tt 
be  disqualified  by  his  preachment  from  car' 
rying  out  Lincoln's  policies  in  office.  Put 
more  concretely,  men  like  Governors  An 
drew,  Curtin,  Buckingham,  Todd  and 
Morten,  Senators  Fessenden,  Chase  and 
Trumbull,  who  were  the  ablest  preachers 
of  Lincoln's  doctrines,  were  not  disquali 
fied  from  holding  office  but  were  urged  to 
remain  in  office  and  continue  their  preach- 
ing of  Lincoln  doctrines  from  the  vantage 
point  of  politcal  office. 

A  political  leader  with  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  a  man  to  be  considered  and 
consulted.     Read  the  letters  to  Thurlow 


Weed,  to  Senator  Cameron,  to  Lymari 
Trumbull,  to  Hannibal  Hamlin  and  to  a 
host  of  others.  And  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  the  political  party  today  which 
practices  that  sane  and  practical  political 
principle  of  Abraham  Lincoln's,  of  having 
the  preachers  of  political  policy  become 
the  performers  in  office,  that  party  suc- 
ceeds and  continues  to  succeed;  but  the 
party  which  has  one  portion  do  the  work 
of  electing  and  then  is  made  to  make 
way  for  people  unheard  of  until  after 
election,  and  who  by  some  necromancy 
convince  or  bedevil  the  appointing  power 
that  they,  and  not  the  workers,  should 
fill  the  offices;  the  party  which  practices 
this  false  political  principle  fails  at  suc- 
ceeding elections  and  continues  to  go 
down  to  defeat  until  it  ceases  to  be  a  fac- 
tor; for  it  does  not  deserve  to  live. 

And  when  the  political  leader  nowa- 
days asks:  "What  would  Lincoln  do  if 
he  were  here  today?"  we  can  tell  him, 
without  any  fear  of  contradiction,  that 
Lincoln  would  do  just  that — reward  the 
deserving  political  worker  with  political 
preferment  after  he  had  participated  and 
made  possible  the  victory  of  the  party. 

Different  panaceas  for  eliminating  cor- 
ruption in  high  places  received  but  scant 
consideration  from  that  direct  political  de 
scendant  of  old  Samuel  Adams,  who  said: 
"Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty.*' 
And  if  Lincoln  could  busy  himself  with 
politics  every  day  of  the  year  he  could 
see  no  reason  why  others  should  not  do 
the  same  thing.  Lincoln  believed  in  a 
trained  political  party — lieutenants  who 
would  not  only  appreciate  the  principles 
the  party  stood  for  but  who  were  trained 
and  prepared  to  carry  out  those  partv 
principles  in  such  a  manner  as  would 
result  in  strengthening  the  Union.  Po- 
litical  volunteers  to  him  were  as  good 
and  as  bad  as  volunteers  in  the  army  who 
came  for  thirty  or  sixty  days  and  whose 
one  thought  during  their  period  of  volur" 
teering  was  the  anxiety  to  return  home. 
It  was  only  after  the  army  was  drilled 
and  trained  and  made  permanent  that 
victories  were  made  possible. 

And  if  Lincoln  were  here  today  he 
would     preach     and    practice    that    only 


Six 


trained  political  leaders  are  worth  any 
thing  in  our  body  politic  and  that  the 
volunteers  of  a  week  or  ten  days  before 
election  for  the  purpose  of  filling  the  of' 
fices,  if  successful,  would  make  no  im' 
pression  upon  that  master  politician  today 
any  more  than  they  would  have  in  his 
own  time. 

The  questioner  as  to  what  Lincoln 
would  do  on  different  occasions  might 
well  be  answered  by  referring  him  tc 
what  Lincoln  said  and  did.  His  tariff 
policy  was  clear  and  made  clear  by  the 
tersest  and  cleanest  statement.  What  would 
Lincoln  have  done  about  National  Dc 
fense  and  National  participation  in  in' 
ternational  affairs?  The  answer  to  the 
first  question  can  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  he  organized  the  greatest  army  an... 
navy  any  country  ever  had  up  to  his 
day.  And  the  other  question,  which  so 
many  have  attempted  to  answer  for  him 
can  easily  be  answered  by  anyone  who 
knows  what  a  firm  believer  Lincoln  was 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in 
the  policies  of  Washington  and  Jefferson 
and  Marshall  as  to  the  duties  and  as  to 
the  functions  of  our  country  among  the 
nations  of  the  world;  and  it  is  little  less 
than  sacrilege  for  anyene  to  say  that  Lin' 
coin  would  have  advocated  entry  of  our 
country  into  the  League  of  Nations  and 
thus  become  subordinated  and  lost  in  the 
babel  of  voices  and  vortex  of  selfish  pas- 
sions which  dominate  and  rule  that  incon' 
gruous  institution.  Lincoln  knew  well 
what  the  Christian  statesmen  of  England 
were  attempting  to  do  with  the  help  of 
the  diplomats  of  France  and  the  other 
countries  on  the  Continent.  Gladstone 
and  Palmerston  and  Russell  and  the  vast 
majority  of  the  English  and  French  in* 
telligencia  were  ready  to  gloat  over  th* 
destruction  of  the  Union,  and  came  within 
a  hair's  breadth  of  realizing  their  ardent 
hopes  and  ambitions.  For  anyone  to  say 
that  Father  Abraham  would  have  con' 
sented  to  have  his  country,  his  United 
States,  have  one  voice  among  fiftytwo 
others,  one  voice  against  fiftytwo  others 
in  a  league  which  is  represented  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  peoples — priroi' 
tive,   selfishj   under'educated   and  unprin' 


cipled  in  their  diplomacy — for  any  man 
to  imagine  that  Abraham  Lincoln  would 
have  ever  exposed  the  country  for  which 
he  fought  and  died  to  the  ipse  dixit  of 
an  institution  of  this  kind,  sprung  into 
being  in  the  last  moments  of  the  expiring 
Versailles  Conference  which  met  in  a  spirt*, 
of  revenge,  which  acted  in  the  spirit  of 
a  conqueror  over  the  vanquished,  which 
tried  to  extract  from  a  conquered  foe  the 
penalties  of  wars  and  of  differences  of 
centuries,  has  not  read  and  has  not  un' 
derstood  the  words  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
Abraham  Lincoln  never  believed  in  the 
principle  of  voi  victis — woe  to  the  con' 
quered — and  it  was  from  that  atmosphere 
that  the  League  of  Nations  sprang.  That 
alone  would  have  made  it  impossible  for 
a  man  of  the  mighty  toleration,  of  th*r 
great  love,  of  the  great  heart  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  to  participate  in  any  such  con- 
ference or  become  a  member  of  the  off- 
spring of  such  a  conference. 

To  anyone  who  has  read  his  letters 
and  his  addresses  on  reconstruction  of  the 
conquered  South,  to  anyone  who  knows 
that  he  had  nothing  but  the  hand  of  fcl* 
lowship  for  Lee,  for  Davis,  for  Benjamin 
and  for  Johnson,  if  they  but  subscribed 
to  the  oath  of  fealty,  it  is  unthinkable  to 
believe  that  Lincoln  would  have  becorre 
a  partner  in  the  bloody  military  cabals  of 
the  Balkan  States  and  their  European 
co'conspirators  among  the  greater  power* 
who  control  them. 

If  Lincoln  were  alive  today  and  in  a 
position  of  power  he  would  prevent  the 
contamination  of  the  United  States  by 
union  with  people  who  thrive  on  war, 
who  believe  in  war,  who  prepare  for  war, 
who  pray  for  war  and  whose  business  is 
war.  He  would  not  have  permitted  th ■• 
union  of  his  country  with  people  who  do 
not  believe  in  religious  tolerance  and  in 
the  equality  of  man.  Lincoln  had  a  pc 
culiar  method  of  minding  his  own  affairs 
and  of  having  the  United  States  mind  its 
own  affairs,  and  he  would  have  actually 
advocated  the  principle  of  educating 
America  first  and  enligh'.enirg  America 
first,  of  saving  America  first,  and  of  mak- 
ing the  people  of  America  respected  by 
being   tolerant   to    the    stranger    in    their 


midst,  before  he  would  move  to  partici' 
pate  in  the  business  of  any  other  country 
or  any  other  nation.  He  would  have  been 
adamant  on  the  question  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  and  would  not  have  thrown  it 
into  the  ever-boiling  cauldion  of  European 
politics.  He  would  have  been  a  mighty 
helper  in  the  struggle  between  capital  and 
labor;  he  would  have  been  a  tower  of 
strength  for  the  oppressed  of  every  na* 
tionality.  He  would  have  laughed  out  of 
existence  secret  organizations  as  inimical 
to  our  form  of  Government,  and  would 
have  led  them  all  into  the  temple  of  the 
Union  where  all  are  equal,  where  all  have 
equal  opportunity,  and  he  would  have 
pointed  to  himself  as  he  often  did  when 
he  told  that  every  soldier's  boy  had  the 
same  chance  that  his  father's  boy  if  onl/ 
given  an  opportunity;  and  it  might  have 
been  his  life's  work  had  he  been  spared 
from  the  bullet  of  the  assassin  to  give 
every  child  of  this  broad  land  that  oppor 
tunity.  He  would  not  have  made  a  mock' 
ery  of  the  majesty  of  the  law  by  enforcing 
one  law  and  neglecting  others.  He  would 
have  continued  to  act  with  malice  towards 
none  and  charity  to  all. 

And  to  those  who  are  discontented  with 
limiting  the  sphere  of  action  of  our  great 
Emancipator  and  are  bound  to  make  him 


a  citizen  of  the  world,  I  have  but  to  say 
that  his  resplendent  example  alone  will 
suffice  for  those  other  nations  of  the 
world  who  would  have  some  of  his  glory 
and  who  would  have  a  share  in  his  great 
heritage  which  he  left  to  all  the  children 
of  men,  and  like  the  great  Jewish  law 
giver  of  old,  we  can  say  of  him,  with  the 
poet  of  the  Centenary: 
".  .  .  .  he  is  more  than  ours  as  we  are 

more 
Than   yet   the   world    dares   dream.      Kn 

stature  grows 
With  that  illimitable  state 
Whose    sovereignty    ordains    no    tribute 

shore, 
And  borderland  of  hate, 
But  grounds  its  justice  in  the  joy  it  sows, 
His  spirit  is  still  a  power  to  emancipate 
Bondage — more  base,  being  more  insidious 
Than  serfdom-  -that  cries  out  in  the  midst 

of  us 
For  virtue,  born  of  opportun'ty, 
And  manhood,  weighed  in  honest  human 

worth, 
And   freedom,  best  in  labor.     He   stands 

forth 
'Mongst  nations  old — a  newworld  Abra- 
ham, 
The  patriarch  of  peoples  still  to  be  .  .   ." 


W 


CHARLES  STBWRER  PRESS,   420   BAST   149TH   STREET 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973  7L63B3H44AP  C001 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  HIS  POLITICAL  VISION  NY 


0112  031796839 


